RF power amplifiers used for wireless communication transmitters, with spectrally efficient modulation formats, require high linearity to preserve modulation accuracy and to limit spectral regrowth and other unwanted out-of-band (OOB) emissions. Typically, a linear amplifier, Class-A type, Class-AB type or Class-B is employed to faithfully reproduce inputs signals and to limit the amplifier output within a strict emissions mask. Linear amplifiers are capable of electrical (DC power in to RF power out or DC-RF) efficiencies of 50% and greater when operated at saturation. However, they are generally not operated at high efficiency due to the need to provide high linearity. For constant envelope waveforms, linear amplifiers are often operated below saturation to provide operation in their linear regime. Time varying envelopes present an additional challenge. The general solution is to amplify the peaks of the waveform near saturation, resulting in the average power of the waveform being amplified at a level well backed-off from saturation. The back-off level, also referred to as output power back-off (OPBO), determines the electrical efficiency of a linear amplifier.
Modern transmitters for applications such as cellular, personal, and satellite communications employ digital modulation techniques such as quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) in combination with techniques such as code division multiple access (CDMA). Use of multiple frequencies, simultaneous codes, and/or shaping of the data pulses to mitigate out-of-band emissions from occurring into adjacent channels produces time-varying envelopes. In general these signals, especially those created by multi-carrier signals, have high wide distribution of power levels resulting in a large peak-to-average ratio (PAR). Therefore, the operation of the linear amplifiers in these types of signals is very inefficient, since the amplifiers must have their supply voltage sized to handle the large peak voltages even though the signals are much smaller a substantial portion of the time. Additionally, the size and cost of the power amplifier is generally proportional to the required peak output power of the amplifier.
Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), and multi-carrier versions of both Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CDMA 2000) are wireless standards and application growing in use. Each requires amplification of a waveform with high PAR levels, above 10 dB in some cases. The sparse amount of spectrum allocated to terrestrial wireless communication requires that transmissions minimize out-of-band (OOB) emissions to minimize the interference environment. A class “A” linear amplifier used to amplify a waveform with a PAR of 10 dB or more provides only 5-10% DC-RF efficiency. The peak output power for the amplifier is sized by the peak waveform. The cost of the amplifier scales with its peak power.
Several other circuit costs including heat sinks and DC-DC power supplies scale inversely to peak power and dissipated heat (which results from the electrical inefficiency). Related base station costs of AC-DC power supplies, back-up batteries, cooling, and circuit breakers also scale inversely with efficiency as does the electrical operating costs. Clearly, improving DC-RF efficiency is a major cost saver both for manufacture and operation. Non-linear classes (e.g., Class C, D, E and F type amplifiers) of RF power amplifiers switch the RF devices on and off in or near saturation, and are more efficient than linear classes of operation such as Class-A, Class-AB or Class-B type which conduct during at least half of the RF cycle and are significantly backed off from compression. However, non-linear amplifiers can only be employed with constant envelope signals, such as frequency modulations (FM) and certain forms of phase modulation (PM). Signals with modulated amplitudes cause severely distorted outputs from these classes of amplifiers.
Many modern digital communications systems transmit complex waveforms consisting of multiple carriers, multiple code channels, or other signals that give rise to large, infrequent peaks in signal power. These signals are costly to transmit in terms of hardware and electrical consumption. Systems that reduce the size of the peaks without introducing substantial levels of error can operate at lower cost and greater electrical efficiency; these are clearly desirable characteristics.